monsieur,' I replied; 'he has perished by the
poniard.'--'What do you want me to do?' asked the magistrate.--'I have
already told you--avenge him.'--'On whom?'--'On his murderers.'--'How
should I know who they are?'--'Order them to be sought for.'--'Why, your
brother has been involved in a quarrel, and killed in a duel. All these
old soldiers commit excesses which were tolerated in the time of the
emperor, but which are not suffered now, for the people here do not like
soldiers of such disorderly conduct.'--'Monsieur,' I replied, 'it is not
for myself that I entreat your interference--I should grieve for him or
avenge him, but my poor brother had a wife, and were anything to happen
to me, the poor creature would perish from want, for my brother's pay
alone kept her. Pray, try and obtain a small government pension for
her.'

"'Every revolution has its catastrophes,' returned M. de Villefort;
'your brother has been the victim of this. It is a misfortune, and
government owes nothing to his family. If we are to judge by all the
vengeance that the followers of the usurper exercised on the partisans
of the king, when, in their turn, they were in power, your brother would
be to-day, in all probability, condemned to death. What has happened is
quite natural, and in conformity with the law of reprisals.'--'What,'
cried I, 'do you, a magistrate, speak thus to me?'--'All these Corsicans
are mad, on my honor,' replied M. de Villefort; 'they fancy that their
countryman is still emperor. You have mistaken the time, you should have
told me this two months ago, it is too late now. Go now, at once, or I
shall have you put out.'

"I looked at him an instant to see if there was anything to hope from
further entreaty. But he was a man of stone. I approached him, and said
in a low voice, 'Well, since you know the Corsicans so well, you know
that they always keep their word. You think that it was a good deed
to kill my brother, who was a Bonapartist, because you are a royalist.
Well, I, who am a Bonapartist also, declare one thing to you, which is,
that I will kill you. From this moment I declare the vendetta against
you, so protect yourself as well as you can, for the next time we meet
your last hour has come.' And before he had recovered from his surprise,
I opened the door and left the room."

"Well, well," said Monte Cristo, "such an innocent looking person as you
are to do those things, M. Bertuccio, and to a king's attorney at that!